ntse: nano-tech in science education ntse: nano-tech in science education - project exploitation...

1

NTSE: Nano-Tech in Science Education - Project Exploitation Report December 2013

NTSE: Nano-Tech in Science Education

Project number: 511787-LLP-1-2010-1-TR-KA3-KA3MP

Project Exploitation Report

WP8 – Exploitation of Project results

December 2013

1. Preliminaries

The process of Exploitation of NTSE Project Results has in view to widely make known the

project results and good practices during and after the funding period. In this respect, the

project partnership took into consideration two relevant Exploitation actions:

Mainstreaming - by transferring the successful project results to educational stakeholders

and decision-makers in each country, at local, regional and national levels;

Multiplication - by engaging individual end-users to adopt / apply the best project results.

In the case of NTSE Project, the Exploitation Work Package has started in Month 17 (May 2012),

with a partners’ discussion held during the 4th Transnational Coordination Meeting, in Sinaia,

Romania, as a first Exploitation Session which had as main topic how to guarantee the transfer

of the project results in-time and beyond its life. In this respect, an Exploitation Strategy has

been designed and agreed, taking into account the guidelines stipulated in the Project Proposal.

2


In the following Transnational Coordination Meetings, the partners discussed, analyzed and

planned in details, several key-issues related to how to exploit the project results optimally, and

offered solutions and implementations, according to:

Expectations related to exploitation of project results and NTSE issues which should be

transferred, adopted or applied;

Educational stakeholders or other actors interested to proceed to use the NTSE project

results;

Limits and barriers that could appear in the process of exploitation of NTSE project results;

Related time-frame associated with the process of exploitation of NTSE project results.

2. Exploitation strategy and specific Exploitation channels provided by the NTSE Project

The Exploitation strategy took into consideration the following aspects:

a) measures for exploitation of results during and beyond the lifetime of the project;

b) timing;

c) target groups (final end-users).

The Strategy clearly stipulated also that it was defined and carried out in a very close relation

with the Dissemination activities, and in this respect, the exploitation results must be seen in a

deeply correlation with the Evaluation and Dissemination process. More, the Mainstreaming

and the Multiplication actions play an important role for further development of the project

outputs and offer a real guarantee that the benefits of the project will endure beyond the

lifetime of the project.

3


The main channel for exploitation of project results - as indicated in the Project proposal (page

102) - was/is offered by the use of the NTSE Virtual Laboratory (designed and set up in the

frame of the project), as an educational testing environment, in-time but also beyond the

lifetime of the project. Practically, beginning with the second half of the project, the Virtual

Laboratory was introduced to the educational stakeholders and decision-makers in the frame of

various seminars or through mass-media. More, the NTSE Virtual Laboratory Guidelines Book

makes broadly known the NTSE Virtual Laboratory to the educational environment.

But first, the NTSE Project partners had as an important task to exploit the Virtual Laboratory in

their own institution, within the existed teaching programs, planned workshops and/or Science

events. More, the NTSE Project partners made efforts to encourage educational institutions /

organizations and/or individual learners to apply the Virtual Laboratory in different educational

settings.

The other important channel for exploitation of project results is represented by the Nano-Tech

Annual for Nano-Tech Readers - a printed volume that records, highlights and illustrates the

main results of the project, including also the main project facts and several statistics. The

volume (printed in English version) is sent and dispatched to schools, directorates, public

libraries, teacher training centers and research institutions. A special launching and

presentation of the project (and of the volume) will be organized with the occasion of the 4th

International Advances in Applied Physics and Materials Science Congress & Exhibition (APMAS

2014) and 1st International Congress & Exhibition on Current Trends on Science Technology

Education (SCITEED 2014), both of them being held on April 24th-27th, 2014 in Fethiye, Muğla,

Turkey, and proposing special sections dedicated to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

4


As a clear NTSE Exploitation Event, it has to be mentioned that in the frame of the 1st

International Congress & Exhibition on Current Trends on Science Technology Education

(SCITEED 2014), a special Workshop dedicated to Nanotechnology will be organized:

1st Workshop on Nanotechnology in Everyday Life. The workshop welcomes submissions

covering aspects of using Nanotechnology in various areas relative to our everyday life (as

below), but not limited just to those ones:

Nanotechnology in Medicine

Nanotechnology in Food Preparation and Refrigeration

Nanotechnology in Cosmetics and Skin Care

Nanotechnology in Clothes and Related Accessories

Nanotechnology in Computer Equipment

Nanotechnology in Electronic Devices

Nanotechnology in Photography and Film

Nanotechnology in Renewable Energy

Nanotechnology in the Treatment of Surfaces

Nanotechnology in the Renewable Energy Area

Nanotechnology in Robotics

Nanotechnology Issues in Education

Miscellaneous

At the same time, the Workshop Scientific Committee is defined as the same one that

supervised the International Nano-Tech Science Education Congress (INT-NTSE), held on

November 15th-16th 2013, in Avcılar, Istanbul, being formed by active participants and members

of NTSE project.

5


The project partnership intention is to make permanent the Workshop on Nanotechnology in

Everyday Life, future editions being proposed to be organized in conjunction with important

Conferences or Congresses.

A very successful NTSE project action and event was the Nano Science Camp (July 2013), hosted

at “The White Lagoon”, Balchik, Bulgaria, between July 1st-6th 2013, where 25 teachers / experts

from partner countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania and Turkey) and 45 secondary school

students participated to Nano presentations, demonstrations, implementations, hands-on

activities and cultural tours, including interactive sessions using the NTSE Virtual Laboratory. It

is also in the intention of the project partnership to organize the Nano Science Camp yearly, by

exploiting the NTSE project results (especially the NTSE Virtual Laboratory), after the end of the

project. In this sense, two proposals for its organization have been already expressed (one from

Turkish partner - DOGA, and one from Bulgarian partner - CCTA).

Beside the Nano Science Camp, another successful event was represented by the Nano Poster

Competition for the students between 14 and 18 years old, having as main theme: Nanoscience

and Nanotechnology. The competition was held in the countries participating in the NTSE

project: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania and Turkey, and the winners were selected by an

international jury at the 3rd International Advances in Applied Physics and Materials Science

Congress & Exhibition (APMAS 2013), in Antalya, Turkey. The NTSE project partnership express

the willingness to exploit the success of this competition and to continue to organize another

edition of the Nano Poster Competition, in order to encourage the young students to extend

their knowledge and to meditate on the topic related to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, by

imaging different Nano-applications in various areas. Local winners from each country will be

rewarded with the opportunity to participate in the International Nano Science Camp, in 2014.

6


A remarkable project result, with a huge potential of exploitation on a large scale, is offered by

the realization and production of the NTSE Nano Kit, designed by DOĞA experts. The NTSE Nano

Kit comprises of nine experiments similar to those ones included in the NTSE Virtual Laboratory

that serves for hands-on activities related to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Science

teaching. With the help of the materials provided in the NTSE Nano Kit, acvitivities concerning

Nanoscale, Buckyball, Lotus Effect, Nanocrystals, Ferrofluids and Leds can be taught to students.

Thousands of young students (from NTSE project partner countries, but not only!) will benefit

of NTSE Nano Kit, during the scholar activities, in the following years. The NTSE Nano Kit can be

easier implemented in the Science curricula and offers sufficient strong points to be adopted by

the Science teachers for practicing and developing Nano experiments in the classrooms.

An important channel for exploitation of NTSE project results is offered by the participation of

project team-members to various national / international conferences, seminars, workshops

which have Nanoscience and Nanotechnology as topic. Representatives from each partner

country will participate and present the main results and outcomes of the project: NTSE Virtual

Laboratory, NTSE Virtual Laboratory Guidelines Book, Nano-Tech Annual for Nano-Tech

Readers, Nano Poster Competition, Nano Science Camp, NTSE Case Studies Results etc. One of

the main objectives for participating to national / international conferences is to increase the

impact of the project, to ensure the project sustainability and to create awareness related to

the NTSE project within the scholar and academic actors, researchers, but also general public.

A clear result comes especially on continuing the NTSE project activities and exploiting them by

setting up of a new proposal. In this respect, preliminary discussions with some European

partners have been already established with the occasion of IOSTE Eurasia Regional Symposium

& Brokerage Event Horizon 2020 - EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

(October 30th-November 1st 2013, Antalya, Turkey), where the NTSE - Nano-Tech in Science

7


Education project was presented (Nano-Tech Science Education - A European KA3-ICT Project

that Promotes Science Education through Virtual Experimentation – authors: Gabriel Gorghiu,

Laura Monica Gorghiu, Mihai Bîzoi and Zuhal Yılmaz Dogan).

Last but not least, the Exploitation of the NTSE project results takes into account the on-line

channels, being concretized in practice by the NTSE project website (http://ntse-nanotech.eu/).

The website represents the mirror of the project which people can visit it and consult it for

having a project overview, but also to use the project results. The website ensures the NTSE

project sustainability and includes also the main events, even after the project ending.

3. Specific Exploitation results from NTSE project partners

The main results obtained in the frame of the exploitation activities, carried out by the NTSE

project partnership, have been registered as follows:

- UVT was the partner institution which coordinated and monitored the Exploitation Work

Package and reported its results.

As results, the NTSE Virtual Laboratory was integrated in specific training activities for 50

Chemistry students (Year I and III of studies) and Physics students (Year II of study), in the frame

of disciplines: Physical Chemistry, Colloidal Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry

and Didactic of Chemistry/Physics. During the disciplines laboratory/seminar activities, there

have been exploited teaching materials, multimedia features and resources (articles) from the

NTSE Virtual Laboratory / Repository related to: synthesis of nanoparticles, specific properties

of nanoparticles, application of nanoparticles in different areas. Different topics have been

8


approached and discussed such as: physical and chemical methods for obtaining nanoparticles

(Nanocrystal Fabrication materials), structure and properties of nanomaterials (Making Origami

Buckyball and Lotus Effect materials), magnetic properties of magnetite (Iron Nanoparticles and

Ferro-fluids and Waves and Dancing Ferrofluid materials).

At the same time, master students / prospective Science teachers - 30 Master students from

Physico-Chemical Methods of Analysis for Life and Environment Quality specialization - studied

specific properties of nano-fibers and nanotubes (using Carbon Nanotubes and Waveguide

Fabrication by Sol-Gel materials from the NTSE Virtual Laboratory / Repository).

In addition, 25 students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information

Technology (Year III of study) were involved in analyzing the way of making the simulations and

producing the movies included in the NTSE Virtual Laboratory interactions: Nanocrystal

Fabrication and Iron Nanoparticles and Ferro-fluids).

Future teachers were also familiarized with the modelling and simulation concepts designed for

educational purposes. In the actual education, the role of modelling and simulation in

understanding dynamic processes is extended to secondary education. Computer modelling

and simulation have an important potential to improve the quality, especially of the secondary

Science education. In this respect, 35 students enrolled in the related studies proposed by the

Teacher Training Department have been trained concerning the use of NTSE Virtual Laboratory

/ Repository in teaching and learning. Movies, Interactions, Repository and Documents

(Student’s Guide, Teacher’s Guide and Assessment Grids) sub-sections were presented and

debated as important issues that embrace and complete the simulation concept. As examples,

the Romanian Case Studies were also introduced and explained.

All the presented results will be multiplied in the following university years. In addition, the

Nano Kit was presented during the Seminars held with Science teachers, those ones being very

interested to use the Nano Kit with the secondary students, in the classrooms.

9


UVT has also planned to exploit the NTSE Virtual Laboratory Platform and the NTSE Virtual

Laboratory Guidelines Book in the frame of the meetings with Romanian Science teachers. In

this sense, half-yearly meetings are foreseen to be organized with the occasion of the

traditional Science teachers’ methodological meetings, in which particular outcomes of the

NTSE project (Classroom implementations, Video-conference implementation sessions and Case

Studies conclusions) will be analyzed. In addition, the Nano-Tech Annual for Nano-Tech Readers

- distributed to more than 250 Romanian educational actors - has the role to make known the

NTSE project and its results, but also to increase the importance of Nanoscience and

Nanotechnology in the formation of young students.

- DOĞA - the NTSE project coordinator - exploited the NTSE project results in several various

national and international events (Workshops and Webminars), by organizing them to provide

basic information on how to effectively use the NTSE Virtual Laboratory in the classroom for

Science and Prospective Science teachers.

Created initially as a Dissemination event, the first edition of the Webminar provided an

important exploitation feature, through mainstreaming - several educational stakeholders

(Science teachers, students, master students, university staff) participating to the event

(www.ntse-nanotech.eu/webinar). Within Doğa Schools, 131 Science teachers from secondary

schools and 60 Physics, 48 Chemistry and 48 Biology teachers from high schools participated in

the Webinar. During the first session of the Webinar (December, the 9th 2013), the NTSE project

was presented, but also the basic information about Nanotechnology was provided to

participants. More, during the second session of the Webinar (December, the 16th 2013), the

NTSE Virtual Laboratory was presented and how it should be used and exploited, but also the

NTSE Nano Kit was introduced and discussed.

10


The European School Net (www.europeanschoolnet.org) supports the dissemination of the

Webinar in order to be able to maximize the number of participants. In this sense, more on-line

sessions are planned for the following period, after the ending of the project, in order to

address over 100 Science teachers in Europe.

Having a big exploitation potential, the NTSE Nano Kit and the related 9 experiments provided

by the NTSE Virtual Laboratory will be included in next years’ Science curriculum, in Doğa

Schools, starting from the lower secondary education level and expanding to other levels,

gradually. It is estimated that during the 2014-2015 school year, the NTSE Nano Kit and the

NTSE Virtual Laboratory will be used by 4000 students from lower secondary and 3700 students

from upper secondary schools.

As NTSE project coordinator, Doğa presented the project in Berlin, at Online Educa 2013,

December 4th-6th, 2013, a three-days International conference on technology supported learning

& training. The NTSE project and its outputs were presented during the event organized by

EACEA within the main conference. It must be specified that proposed by EACEA, the NTSE

project has been chosen to be included in the publication that includes project descriptions and

outcomes of several KA3 projects from the period 2007-2011. The publication gathers the

information related to coordinating organization, consortium and grant details and relevant

pictures from the project activities, a paragraph describing the project and a part that

introducing the project outcomes.

- FONDAZIONE exploited the project results and its specific steps in several meetings and

events with teachers and educators. Since Fondazione had a Science Centre (for half of the

length of the project), the section devoted to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology was the place

where educators and teachers could experiment and received updated information related to

the NTSE project, but not only. Apart the annual event for schools - Smart Education and

http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/

11


Technology days: 10-12 October 2012 and 9-11 October 2013 - in which thousands of teachers

were informed about the project, being familiarized with some experiments from the Virtual

Laboratory, other smaller events for teachers were held during the project’s time span.

Since the burning of the Science Centre, the Nanotechnology section was also the place where

the explainers (educators who deal with the school students and the general public) were

trained every month and informed about the available virtual and real tools, and also on how to

use them with the public. NTSE Virtual Lab was one of the selected topics and 35 educators

attended to the training courses held in October 2012.

In February 2012, a special training course for science teachers (primary and secondary schools)

was held at Città della Scienza, in cooperation with the Italian Ministry for University and

Research (MIUR). 25 teachers from all over Italy attended the course, and one of the lessons

was about Nanotechnology, related to the use of the Virtual Lab. A similar course will be held in

February 2014.

In March 2013 (8th and 15th), two special training courses with science teachers of secondary

schools were held by Mr. Guglielmo Maglio (13 teachers and 8 teachers respectively attended

the meetings), having the NTSE project issues as central information, but also things concerning

how to apply for the Nano Poster Competition. Other meetings in 9 secondary schools of

Naples were held by the staff of the Project to clarify the rules of the poster competition and to

invite students to use the Virtual Lab.

Finally, it is estimated that the Nano-Tech Annual for Nano-Tech readers will be distributed to

30 Policy Makers and Managers, responsible for Local School Authorities and 50 selected

teachers.

- FORTH undertakes to exploit the NTSE project results of: NTSE Virtual Laboratory Platform,

NTSE Virtual Laboratory Guidelines Book and Nano-Tech Annual for Nano-Tech Readers.

12


It is foreseen that the NTSE Virtual Laboratory Guidelines Book was/is about to be distributed

(in electronic format) to approx. 5000 Science teachers, in the context of Greece. This is to be

achieved via FORTH’s collaboration with the Hellenic Institute of Educational Policy

(http://www.iep.edu.gr/site/index.php/en) which is the responsible Agency for curriculum

development.

A Workshop entitled “Teaching Nanoscience in Secondary Education” will be organized during

March 2014 in Heraklion, Crete, addressing Science teachers from the region of Crete. The

Workshop will be supported by the local educational authorities and its main goal will be to

integrate experiments from NTSE Virtual Laboratory into the curriculum and introduce the

students to the new field of Nanoscience, but also exciting them about Science, in general.

In addition, the regional inspectors / consultants of Science Education in the fields of Physics,

Chemistry and Biology will support the engagement of teachers in the NTSE Virtual Laboratory.

A minimum of 300 teachers will participate in this task. The results of the NTSE Virtual

Laboratory implementations will be conveyed to the regional inspectors and through a

dedicated Workshop jointly organized between FORTH and the Institution of Educational Policy

(IEP) - the NTSE “messages” will be conveyed to the policy level.

Finally, the Nano-Tech Annual for Nano-Tech Readers is distributed to a not less than 120 policy

makers (approx. 100 inspectors and 20 curriculum development specialists of the IEP).

- SIRMA planned to exploit actively the NTSE project results of: NTSE Virtual Laboratory

Platform, NTSE Virtual Laboratory Guidelines Book and Nano-Tech Annual for Nano-Tech

Readers. The Bulgarian institution has already placed an advertise banner of the NTSE project

on the National Educational Web-Portal of the Ministry of Education (http://resursi.e-edu.bg).

This portal is being visited by several thousand people daily (teachers, students, MoE

administrators and representatives of the regional inspectorates of education). This banner will

13


bring serious traffic to the NTSE Virtual Laboratory and hopefully the majority of the visitors will

start returning to the Virtual Lab occasionally. This will greatly enhance the future exploitation

and direct implementation of the NTSE Virtual Laboratory experiments and materials, in the

everyday learning activities.

Sirma Media is acting as Regional Training Agency under the Intel Teach program for Bulgaria.

Among Sirma Media, main responsibilities are the coordination of the senior and master

trainers under the program, and the provisioning of useful examples of good educational

practices that can be shared with the teachers during the training sessions. With all this in

mind, Sirma Media plans to represent the NTSE Virtual Laboratory as useful tool for Science

based lessons, especially with the following Intel Teach courses: Project-based approaches,

Inquiry based learning in the Science classroom.

It is also planned that the NTSE Virtual Laboratory Guidelines Book will be distributed (in

electronic format) to approx. 500 educational institutions across Bulgaria. This is to be achieved

via Sirma Media network of active partners/clients.

In addition, the Regional inspectors of education and especially the Science education experts

(covering the disciplines: Physics, Chemistry and Biology) will support the direct

implementation of the NTSE Virtual Laboratory experiments and materials by the Science

teachers, across the country. It is envisaged the inclusion of approximately 280-300 teachers

from the 28 Regional Inspectorates in the country.

Finally, it is estimated that the Nano-Tech Annual for Nano-Tech Readers is distributed to

approx. 30 policy makers, but also to educational NGO activists, young scientists and

prospective teachers.

14


- CCTA exploited and plans to exploit the project results at different levels, as follows:

a) Exploitation of the project results in the frame of the Nano Science Camp Event:

CCTA is committed to have the Nano Science Camp as an annual event, beyond the project

lifetime. CCTA had organized the NTSE Nanocamp in Balchik, Bulgaria, and up to early 2014 is

planning the second edition of the Nanocamp, taking part in Kyustendul, Bulgaria, with the

support of the Kyustendil Municipality. The Bulgarian Nanocamp team leaders and scientists

had committed contribution for the second edition in 2014.

The Nanocamp is presented as science-camp, taking part in Bulgaria, open for any national or

international team of participants from EU or partner countries. Every team participates on

tuition basis, for every participant, as the cost of the team-leader (teacher) is covered by CCTA.

b) Exploitation by adding the NTSE activities to the general curriculum, at local level:

The Sofia-city Regional Inspectorate of Education is supporting four schools in Sofia City to

freely experiment the integration of the NTSE activities in the general curriculum:

2nd English Language School “Thomas Jefferson”;

2 Comprehensive School “Acad. Emiliyan Stanev”;

“John Atanassov” VET High School of Electronics;

National VET school of precise equipment, electronics and optics “M.B. Lomonosov”.

All above-mentioned schools had taken part in all the project stages, staring with the

questionnaires to teachers, up to the NTSE Congress in Istanbul, in November 2013. Videos of

the recorded lessons are available in the NTSE Virtual Lab - Podcasting Room.

The curriculum integration is not time-limited result, since the involved teachers teach

c) Exploitation by involving the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Technical University of

Sofia, through participating in the Annual Nanotechnology conference:

15


CCTA participated in the 15th International Workshop on Nanoscience & Nanotechnology,

where a special section was dedicated for illustrating the NTSE findings and results. In this

respect, the CCTA team was invited to share the Virtual Lab learning materials to the

conference organizers and audience.

d) Exploitation via the FP7 Scientix 2 project:

CCTA had reached an agreement with the Scientix project team, in order to integrate the NTSE

Virtual Lab activities in the Scientix database, and therefore to make it available to more than

2000 registered members, all STEM teachers from EU28 and partner countries, and to add the

NTSE Project in the SCIENTIX project community funded STEM-related projects, making so NTSE

accessible via the Scientix search engine. By that way, the users will enter directly to the NTSE

Website and Virtual Lab, redirected by the Scientix portal.

4. Conclusions

Generally, through Exploitation process, the NTSE project outputs are available so that they

become replicable and usable by others. From the partnership point of view, it is considered

that the exploitation results lead to a qualitative process of ensuring the project sustainability

and answer to the expectations proposed in the exploitation strategy. In this respect, the

project partnership will make continuously efforts to promote the NTSE project results and

outputs through different educational, professional, and school / academic networks of which

the partners are members.

16


Acknowledgements

This work was designed and elaborated by the Valahia University Targoviste NTSE team

members. The project partners provided the information related to their Exploitation activities

and results, in accordance with the agreed Exploitation Strategy. The support offered by the

project partners is gratefully acknowledged!